In a wireless network, an access point typically advertises its identity and capabilities to other stations using beacon management frames. FIG. 1A illustrates a prior art wireless network 100. The station 120 receives beacon/probe response management frames 112 and 132 from the access point A 110 and the access point B 130 respectively. The beacon/probe response management frames 112 and 132 contain information such as the channel, the basic service set identifier, the supported data rate, and the security protocol, of the access points 110 and 130 respectively.
An access point can also support one or more virtual access points that appear to a station as independent physical access points. FIG. 1B illustrates a prior art wireless network 150 with an access point A 110 that supports one virtual access point. The access point A 110 supports a logical entity that appears to the station 120 as an access point B even though the access point B does not exist physically. The access point A 110 creates a unique service set identifier (SSID) for the virtual access point B and sends a beacon/probe management frame 132 for the virtual access point B during each beacon interval.
For example, during each beacon interval T, the access point A 110 sends a beacon frame 112 with its own information and another beacon frame 132 with information of the virtual access point B. The station 120 is aware of two access points when it receives the beacon/probe request management frames 112 and 132, even though only one physical access point A 110 is present.
As the number of virtual access points increases, the volume of management traffic in the wireless network 150 increases and it reduces the usable available channel bandwidth. This is because when a virtual access point is added to the wireless network 150, the access point supporting the virtual access point is required to send an additional beacon/probe response management frame for the virtual access point. The problem of excessive management traffic and interference exacerbates when there are more physical access points that support multiple virtual access points in the wireless network 150. It may also decrease the number of admissible stations in the wireless network.
When the station 120 desires a different service profile from the access point A 110, it is required to manually disconnect and re-connect to a different SSID for each service profile that it desires and a new security configuration for each service profile may be required. The switching of service profiles may also affect the quality of service of the communication between the station 120 and the access point A 110.